Greed and Fraud

A few weeks ago, I posted an article about the relationship between fear and fraud. Basically, if someone is trying to make you afraid, then asking for money or personal information, it is very likely that they are trying to steal from you.

There is another emotion that scammers will often prey upon: greed. That all-too-human desire to get something for nothing, and to be the one with the most.

The most obvious example I can think of is the old Lottery Scam. By stoking greed with the promise of vast, out-of-nowhere riches, the perpetrators of this scam hope you won’t notice how suspicious the hoops they’re asking you to jump through are. The promise of millions of dollars is misdirection; while you’ve got your eyes on the prize, you might not remember how unwise it is to wire a few thousand dollars to a stranger, or that “cash this check and wire the money back to me” is a weird request to begin with.

Other examples include the Car Wrap Advertising scam, the Pigeon Drop scheme (“I found money, let’s share it!”), and of course the old Nigerian 419 scam (“I’m an exiled prince; help me retrieve my fortune and I’ll share it with you,” which at this point isn’t even a “classic” scam; it’s positively an antique).

It’s the same tip as with fear: if someone is trying to spark greed, then asking for money and/or personal information, they are trying to scam you.